Page:English Historical Review Volume 35.djvu/101

 1920 THE TWELFTH CENTURY 93 Mr. Lapsley has not observed that Wimar actually held the shrievalty of Norfolk (and Suffolk) for seventeen years — Easter 1 1 70 to Easter 1 187 — in conjunction with two others to Michaelmas 1175, and, after that, by himself. There is a notice of him in Foss's Judges (i. 322-3), where it is noted that he was one of those who assessed the tallage, in 1173, in Essex and Hertfordshire. There is nothing to show that he ever acted either as a castle chaplain or as a clerk of the works. There is even at least one instance in which work on the fabric of a castle was not ' viewed ' by a capellanus, although that castle can be definitely shown to have had, at the time, a capellanus who was paid the normal wage of a penny a day. This instance is that of Southampton, where the pipe roll of 1 Ric. I shows us Robert the contratalliator ^ viewing the repairs to the king's quarters in the keep,^ although, as Mr. Lapsley notes (p. 350), the castle had a chaplain on its staff .^ That I am justified in rejecting the phrase ' per visum ' as implying the' office of a clerk of the works and in rendering it as denoting the action of a mere ' viewer ' is shown by a passage on the same roll (p. 225), where there is an entry of the purchase of armour, wine, and clothing for the king — per breve Regis et per visum lordani de Turri et per testimonium Willelmi de Sancte Marie ecclesia. Et. . . per visum eiusdem Willelmi. Et. . . per idem breve et per visum eiusdem Willelmi. ' Viewers ' appear to have been men of various occupation and of no technical knowledge.* The real expert ' clerk of the works ' was, I take it, the ' engineer ' {ingeniator). This official meets us in 1160, when there was considerable work being done at Berkhamsted Castle, then in charge of Thomas (Becket) the chancellor.^ The most interesting of these officials in the records of the twelfth century is Ailnoth or Alnod,^ who seems to be first men- tioned in 1158,' when he was already drawing pay (liberatio) at the rate of sevenpence a day, as ' Ailnothus ingeniator qui custodit domus regis '. His obviously English name invests him ' I have dealt with his succession to his father in that office, with its fee of twopence a day, in introduction to Pipe Roll, 33 Hen. II, pp. xxi-ii. Roberti Contratalliatoris ' : p. 197. 8 Pipe Roll, 1 Ric. I, p. 206. Waszonis coci et Radulfi Pichard et Ricardi burgensis et Ade Ruffi ' : Pipe Roll, 18 Hen. II. p. 119. Pipe Roll, 6 Hen. II, p. 12. ' Pipe RoU, 4 Hen. II, p. 113.
 * ' In reparandis domibus in Turri de Hantona . . . per breve Regis et per visum
 * e. g. 'In operations [castelli de Gloecestr' . . . per breve Regis et per visum
 * ' In liberatione Ingeniatoris xlviii s. Et in Operatione castelli xHii li. vi s. viii d.' :
 * The Anglo-Saxon > is occasionally substituted for the final d.